Male lactation

In zoology, male lactation is the production of milk from a male mammal's mammary glands. Such production is known as lactation. It is well-documented in the Dayak fruit bat. The term male lactation is not used in human medicine. It has been used in popular literature, such as Louise Erdrich's The Antelope Wife, to describe the phenomenon of male galactorrhea, which is a well-documented condition in humans, unrelated to childbirth or nursing. Newborn babies of both sexes can occasionally produce milk; this is called neonatal milk (also known as "Witch's milk") and not considered male lactation.

It is well known that in the males of all mammals, including [hu]man[s], rudimentary mammae exist. These in several instances have become well developed, and have yielded a copious supply of milk. Their essential identity in the two sexes is likewise shown by their occasional sympathetic enlargement in both during an attack of the measles.[2]

Darwin later considered the nearly perfect function of male nipples in contrast to greatly reduced structures such as the vesicula prostatica, speculating that both sexes may have nursed young in early mammalian ancestors, and subsequently mammals evolved to inactivate them in males at an early age.[3]

Male mammals of many species have been observed to lactate under unusual or pathogenic conditions such as extreme stress, castration and exposure to phytoestrogens, or pituitary tumors. Therefore, it is hypothesized that, while most male mammals could easily develop the ability to lactate, there is no selective advantage to male lactation. While male mammals could, in theory, improve offspring's survival rate through the additional nourishment provided by lactation, most have developed other strategies to increase the number of surviving offspring, such as mating with additional partners. Presently, very few species are known where male lactation occurs and it is not well understood what evolutionary factors control the development of this trait.[4]

Human male breastfeeding is possible, but production of the hormone prolactin is necessary to induce lactation, so male lactation does not occur under normal conditions.[6]Domperidone is a drug that can be used to increase lactation. Male lactation has also been seen during recovery from starvation. This may be because glands that produce hormones recover faster than the liver, which absorbs hormones, leading to high hormone levels.[7]

Spontaneous production of milk not associated with childbirth, known as galactorrhea, can occur in males and females.[8]